Yet Being Someone Other

by Laurens van der Post

The most revealing book that Laurens van der Post wrote about his extraordinary and eventful life; it is a distillation of the experiences that have moved him at the deepest level of the imagination and made him the exceptional person and writer he was.

Genres: Travel, Autobiography, Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, History, Africa

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Sir Laurens Jan van der Post was a 20th Century South African Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, close friend of Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and conservationist.

Reviews

[Erik Empson]

Having recently read a few books by van der Post, and admired them, I’d held off reading about the scandals around his biography, because I wanted to learn it in his own words. I might revise this review to include any observations that arise out of that.
Of all the books I've read by the author, this one I enjoyed the least. It does have characteristic flashes of brilliance, but at times it is far too effusive and, dare I say it, rambling.
It covers four periods of van der Post's life. The first his growing up in the Interior of Africa and his time in Port Natal. Here he shows a real adventurous flare, and gets his first gig working on a newspaper, as well as developing a life-long interest in shipping. He spends time on whaling boats and with the harbour-masters of the port itself.
The next section describes a year-long journey through Japan with the ship captain Mori. Here the narrative is perhaps at is most lyrical, it reads as a homage to the country and its people. For me a lot of this was too heady and purple to get much from, but the wonder conveyed did nonetheless impress.
Next it deals with the war, his soldiering in Abyssinia and later Java, then imprisoned by the Japanese. Here der Post works through his ambivalences about the experience, and describes certain acts of heroism on his part whereby his appreciation of the peculiarly refined Japanese notions of etiquette, politeness and order, practised in speech, allowed him to at times countermand fate by communicated with earthly authorities as if he had a direct line to the more profound, imperial, absolute, heavenly powers that truly governed them. He spends time in Java after, trying to secure the safety of the Dutch there, whilst trying to prevent an awful backlash against decolonisation in the period following WWII.
The latter half of the book is full of accounts of the personalities of his day, literary, political, military, royal, and the author waltzes with them in a manner I found less interesting and a little overbearing. But the last section brings together a lot of the currents of the book, and Laurens van der Post's life. Needless to say, throughout his affection and respect - deep and genuine (or was it namedropping? I hope not!) - for other people is clearly visible.
The author felt perhaps most at home when he was at sea, and the metaphor works too. His affection for the Castle line of boats, is a continuation of his tumultuous time with Mori, and for him it defines an era when this mode of travel – Southampton to Port Natal – is terminated. I think a great many of his friendships were established when on these long voyages (to East Asia etc), as were many of the alliances that were tenuously holding Empire together.
Most at home when at sea, most belonging there. His reflections don’t offer a simple outlook on this; his grandfather had fought the British, he worked for the British. He was isolated and reproached by the Dutch for Java. A complex figure in a fast changing era, an establishment man, but one who also tried to find beautiful things, and share them.

[Darla Ebert]

An exceptional writer who sadly left the scene in 1996. This slice of life from his life makes for mouth-dropping, eye opening reading. And Sir Laurens van der Post was an original. Highly recommended. The story begins somewhat slowly but morphs into "Something other" (slight tip of the hat to the title of this book).

[Michael]

A partial autobiography of his experiences as a relatively privileged, and seemingly able official associated with British rulers in post WW2.
Dates are almost non-existent so it was very difficult at times to really know whether it was 1910, 1920 or 1938. Very confusing.
The book started with promise as the author revealed his younger years and a move into journalism around the Cape of Good area and his association with shipping. After that section I kept hoping for much more. It was not delivered because the reader is subjected to his supposed profound understanding and philosophy of almost everything even at a very young age.

Unfortunately the following phrase was printed on page 304. Had it been page 34 I would have stopped reading the book then and there. To me this statement was the most arrogant of all. "Somewhere between the ages of three and five I became aware of a frontier between the immense past, which was the hidden source of the meaning I sought, and the short term of life I had in which to live it and which would involve me in another act of painful and conscious birth of an individual self within."
Excuse me. At that age I was thinking about the toys I had to play with, not Philosophy 302.

[Lake Lady]

I throughly enjoyed this book. Van Der Post is an extraordinary writer. One who causes me to now and then stop and reread a passage, not because it was so hard to understand but simply because it was so beautifully written. This book focuses on his love of sea travel, from aboard a whaling ship sailing out of Port Natal, South Africa to aboard a cargo ship from that same port to Japan before WWII. The Japan experiences in particular feature later in Van Der Post's life when he was a POW in Java which is also covered in this memoir.

[Annalise]

Such detailed accounts! and such sensitivity in the writing and the thoughts that go with it. A unique character with such attention to detail.